AI is better than doctors at predicting how long a patient has to live

Australian researchers developed an artificial intelligence tasked with predicting patient lifespans. The machine is surprisingly accurate at predicting which patient would die within five years. Its official accuracy rate was 69% or on par with a trained human oncologist and the researchers at the University of Adelaide behind it say an upgraded version is even better.

To train the machine to spot the right patterns that might predict lifespan, the scientist fed radiological chest scans belonging to 48 patients. The machine is based on a machine learning technique called deep learning which uses neural networks that mimic how the human brain works.

Lyle Palme says his team embarked on this specific route because radiological images are a great resource. The more data you can feed into the machine’s algorithms, the more reliable its outputs.

Mike Rawson

Mike Rawson has recently re-awoken a long-standing interest in robots and our automated future.
He lives in London with a single android - a temperamental vacuum cleaner - but is looking forward to getting more cyborgs soon.